 3
letters are still chanted at every wrestling event across
this nation. You hear it when 1 of their former wrestlers
enters the ring, when somebody gets put through a table
or when some poor bastard takes a chair shot so hard the
damn thing is dented. Those 3 letters are ECW.
Extreme
Championship Wrestling was simply the best wrestling promotion
in America EVER. It was an underdog company that began as
an offshoot of the NWA then became the experiment for the
mad scientist of wrestling, Paul Heyman. Heyman, along with
his tightly knit talent roster, brought ECW to a plateau
so high that the big 2 had to take notice. But in January
2001 it
all fell apart. Sometime after that, the WWE bought the
assets of ECW & hired some of their talent. Now they
come together to tell the story of the rise & fall of
ECW.
The
Rise & Fall Of ECW DVD is a 2-disc set. Disc 1 is a
3-hour documentary that covers it all & it comes from
the mouths of the current WWE superstars who were there.
You hear from Heyman, Tommy Dreamer, Taz, the Dudleys &
more. You hear tales about what went on in the ring &
outside of it told in the honest manner that made the Philadelphia
promotion better than the 1 in Stamford or the 1 in Atlanta.
ECW never insulted your intelligence.
You
get the whole long tale. From the early contributions of
the Public Enemy, Taz, Terry Funk, Sabu & “The
Franchise” Shane Douglas. Let’s not forget the
most important contributors to ECW’s shows, the fans.
You see footage of Cactus Jack & Steve Austin, both
of whom used the fertile soil of ECW to grow as performers.
You learn of the innovations ECW made such as brining technical
wrestlers who were big in Japan (Chris Jericho, Eddie Guererro,
Dean Malenko, Chris Benoit) & luchadores (Rey Misterio
Jr, Juventud Guererra, Psicosis, & Konnan) to this country.
Included are the controversial moments such as flaming tables,
Beulah’s lesbian kiss with Kimona Wanalaya, &
the night Raven crucified The Sandman.
Then
there is the downward spiral. Tod Gordon, former co-owner,
acts as a mole to obtain talent for WCW (interviews with
Eric Bischoff indicate that he’s still a prick). Financial
woes lead to the departure of talents like Taz, the Dudley
Boys & Mike Awesome (who was ECW champ when he walked
into Nitro to beat down Kevin Nash). Perhaps the worst moment
is when the national TV deal with TNN, which was supposed
to keep them afloat, ends up
burying ECW as the promotion is used as a guinea pig so
the network can negotiate with the WWE.
Disc
2 features 6 great matches including a Television Championship
match with Rob Van Dam against Jerry Lynn & the night
Tommy Dreamer finally defeated Raven. It also features bonus
interviews in which Stevie Richards apologizes for how he
left ECW, Taz speaks of his phone conversation with Paul
Heyman prior to his WWE debut & Chris Jericho explaining
the calamity that was Heyman’s travel arrangements.
The
Rise & Fall Of ECW DVD shows how a tiny promotion that
worked out of a Bingo Hall took the wrestling world by storm,
how 2 multi-million dollar companies tired to imitate it
but merely watered it down & how much that company is
still missed 4 years after its demise.
R
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